Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7311 in DVD
• Released on: 1998-09-25
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Arabic, English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 135 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Another John Grisham legal thriller comes to the screen, pairing Denzel Washington and Julia Roberts in a film directed by Alan J Pakula, who is known for dark-hued suspense pictures such as Klute, The Parallax View, All the President's Men, and Presumed Innocent. The Pelican Brief isn't up to the level of those films, but it is a perfectly entertaining movie about a law student (Roberts) whose life is endangered when she discovers evidence of a conspiracy behind the killings of two Supreme Court justices. She enlists the help of an investigative reporter (Washington) and the two become fugitives. The charisma and chemistry of the leads goes a long way toward compensating for the story's shortcomings, as does a truly impressive supporting cast that includes Sam Shepard, John Heard, James B Sikking, Tony Goldwyn, Stanley Tucci, Hume Cronyn, John Lithgow, William Atherton and Robert Culp. --Jim Emerson

Special Features
Wide Screen
English
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital 5.1 English
Dolby Digital 5.1
Interactive Menus
Production Notes
Scene Access
Trailers
Arabic
English

Synopsis
Julia Roberts (ERIN BROCKOVICH) stars in THE PELICAN BRIEF as sharp law student Darby Shaw whose querying mind gets her into trouble. A faithful adaptation of John Grisham's (THE FIRM) best-selling novel, this taut thriller follows the travails that beset Shaw when her theory on the cause of the deaths of two Supreme Court Justices lands her name on the conspirators' hit list. When Shaw teams up with reporter Gray Grantham (Denzel Washington--THE HURRICANE) they find themselves dodging deadly assassins in a suspenseful story that weaves complex narrative strands. The well-cast film also features a cameo by playwright-actor Sam Shepard (TRUE WEST).

Customer Reviews

Pelican Brief
I'm a big fan of John Grisham's books and the film adaptations of the books usually make for excellent viewing also. It's many a year though since I've read "The Pelican Brief" so when I sat down to watch the film I was unsure as to how confident I could be that the film was true to the book. It was surprising to find out after watching the film though, that the film rights were actually sold before the book was written, and Grisham himself wrote the part of Darby Shaw with Julia Roberts in mind, so you would image that the film should be a near perfect adaptation of the book.

The plot in many respects is extremely simple; two Supreme Court judges have been assassinated in what seems to be unrelated attacks. Legal student Darby Shaw with no other though than to investigate the deaths as a mental exercise in research, puts together a plausible explanation of why they judges have been killed, a theory which implicates both the White House and the FBI. Darby's partner Thomas Callahan (Sam Shepherd) shows the report to a friend in the FBI, who in turn shows it to the head of the FBI, who in turn shows it to the President. Unfortunately for Darby it would seem that her theory is somewhere too near to the truth for both the President and the FBI as a succession of various hit men and thugs are now trying to make Darby's brief and Darby herself disappear. Solace comes in the form of Washington Post journalist Gray Grantham (Denzil Washington) who comes to Darby's aid as they both try to uncover the truth and print the real version of events.

Amongst the various chases and thrills and spills it does become more than a little confusing as to who is chasing who and who is exactly on Darby's side. That's not to say though that the film is all explosions and shoot outs, indeed if anything what the film does play on very well in the isolation that Darby is forced into, as she must become anonymous so that the various government agencies cannot track her down.

Julia Roberts is excellent in this role as she shows real vulnerability as the scared and alone Darby. Very interesting is how the film makers change Darby's appearance throughout the film, in the early stages of her plight Darby is a wan and colourless waif, with scraped back hair and baggy clothes, as her characters begins the fight back and eventually partners up with Grantham her appearance changes into the shining red-haired beauty we know Robert's can be.

Denzil Washington is similarly very good in his role as the street wise Grantham, he eludes an aura of believability and confidence that would comfort the most frightened soul. He and Roberts play off each other extremely well and their chemistry is such that the romantic scenes that never come are almost conspicuous by their absence.

The final scenes as the dynamic duo bring the forces of evil to justice are thrilling and exciting and you almost feel like cheering when Grantham delivers the news of the story his paper is going to run in the morning to the various "baddies"

A great film of tension and drama and is well recommended.

Absorbing film
Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington are simply outstanding in this film which draws you in scene by scene as your knowledge of what's going on increases and then is teased again by a further development. Perhaps frightening, because you could believe it could happen. I would have liked more of a romantic link between the two main characters, although its almost there, but perhaps I'm being a typical man wishing it were more obvious in the film - deeper woman may find the subtle appeal is enough already. Excellent film which I can't turn off once I've started it.

Excellent Film - disappointing DVD version
I've always loved this film, I had it on tape for years. It's a great story, intelligent, with superb acting. Other reviews say it all

What did annoy me was that the DVD is two-sided. You have to watch half the film, then turn the DVD over to watch the other half. This isn't going to be enough to irritate everybody but it really irrited me, and I really wouldn't have bought it if I'd known about the format.

I'm the lazy type who likes to settle down, surrounded by food, and not get up again until the film is finished and there's no food left. Like I said, not going to bother everybody but still worth knowing.